Fearless: A Biography of Edna O’Brien, by Cathy Curtis
Edna O’Brien’s journey from child in rural Ireland in the 1930s to iconic literary figure—best known for her groundbreaking novel The Country Girls—is nothing short of remarkable. Her convent education provided the raw material, but her innate gift enabled her to imbue the facts of a deeply repressive environment with a unique blend of candor, humor, and sensual description.
O’Brien’s upbringing under the shadow of a violent father and devout mother, her tumultuous marriage, and her liberated post-divorce life in Swinging London of the 1960s set the stage for an extraordinary narrative. In addition to chronicling O’Brien’s personal life, Fearless explores the controversies surrounding her work, from bans of her books by the Catholic Church in Ireland to her courageous later novels dealing with all-too-timely themes of political violence and sexual violation.
Based on primary sources, Fearless is a comprehensive and engaging biography of one of the most significant writers of our time. It will appeal not only to O’Brien’s fans but also to readers interested in the intersection of the intimate lives of women and twentieth-century Irish literature and history.
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